Semi-Automatic handguns usually feature two sighting elements, a front sight and a rear sight. The proper alignment of these in regards of the barrel ensures that the shots strike where the shooter intends. The fore-mentioned alignment can become incorrect if the sights move on the slide due to continued battering which sights are prone to suffer during use. Firearm sights may also be inaccurate when they have been exchanged for new sights, losing the setting of the previously installed sights.
Iron sights are optical-mechanical elements normally attached at the top of the slide of semi-automatic handguns. Sights are usually mechanically secured in the desired position by the use of a dovetail, and are held by friction. Iron sights are usually changed due to the personal preference of the user of the handgun. It is not uncommon for a model of handgun to have many types of different sight designs available in the market, thus allowing the user of a handgun to configure his gun to his liking. Once the sights are changed, the alignment of these in respect of the slide is lost, and therefore re-aligned by test firing the gun, a process called sighting-in. Sighting-in is usually done at a gun range, were the gun is shot and the point of impact observed. If the point of impact if different than where the gun was aimed, the sights require adjustment. This is achieved by moving the front or rear sight.
The proper alignment of sights can traditionally only be achieved by test firing the handgun at a firing range, and then making the proper adjustments on-site. All current devices that do this task require the disassembly of the slide from the frame, which is conventionally a very inconvenient thing to do at the shooting range. Furthermore, these devices are bulky and a hassle to carry in a range bag or case. The proposed invention tackles these two major issues.
In short, sight alignment devices that exist on the market today are not catered to use on the firing range, and are therefore not easily portable. Additionally, many of the tools are ill-equipped to allow an individual to install or entirely remove a sight from a firearm while at the range.
Thus, there is a need for an apparatus such as a portable sight adjustment and installation device that enables an individual to adjust and/or install the front sight and the rear sight of a firearm without the need to remove the slide, whereby the adjustment of the firearm sights may be facilitated and expedited while at the range. Such a device is preferably smaller than traditional adjustment tools, and therefore more portable. Additionally, such a device may preferably equipped with a spacer block to provide the room necessary to remove and/or install a firearm sight to the slide of the firearm easily using the same tool used for sight adjustment.